Nice to Beautiful IBM LaGaude

On the Way to Nice and Dinner on the Riviera

Seabass and Pumpkin Soup. Another trip through the Franfurt Airport. On the way their again from Nice this AM (Saturday) on the way to Tokyo

January in Former USSR - Riga, Latvia

Riga, Latvia

Latvia is a country that is part of the Baltics, and was formerly part of the Soviet Union. Kevin, my manager and I had little problem taking a taxi to the hotel. Most of the flight was IBMers. There are 100s of IBMers at this top notch Central and Eastern Europe sales meeting. We had a chance to walk to "Old Town," the original medieval city with many buildings from the 1100. There were quaint small alleys and cobblestones. You will see photos from the park we passed along the way. We were cold and hungry after the walks so we went to a pub and had a great meal. We debated if the thick stone walls with old beams and picnic tables with dovetails and no hardware were real (originals) or created in the last 50 years. Kevin had a local beer (which was not too good to me) and i had Rioja. Prices are pretty good. For a snack we had roasted potatoes, eggplant with fresh mozzarella and walnuts, and another dish that was called something like cheeseburger but was like a lamb empenada -- it was awesome! (Good thing we are doing a lot of walking!) We met the telecom team for dinner at a very nice old-style Russian restaurant. It was great to see some old telecom friends and many folks I work with frequently. We started with Beluga cold vodka (it is suppose to be the best). For dinner I had stroganoff (because I thought that woudl be a cool thing to have locally). I was wonderful -- sliced tender beef with a few beets and pickles over yummy fried potatoes cakes with a pink beety-sour cream sauce. Went back to the room to crash and wake up the equalavent to 12AM local time to eat and go to the main tent.

Arrived in Frankfurt

I woke up in Germany and this is what I looked like - not too pretty. Photo was taken by the nice French Canadian lady sitting next to me.

I had the parrot meals. Dinner: cubed squash and tomato sauce, spinach, rice. Breakfast: veggie wrap with mushrooom, apple sauce, fruit.

Love you all! Getting ready to board Latvia.

Starting Round the World Tour

Hello Fruit Bat and everyone! I left Raleigh late yesterday for Philadelphia, then to Frankfurt (where I am now). I guess I have been flying about 10 hours now. Althought it is 9AM here in Germany, it is 3AM back in North Carolina.

PHOTOS

1) McKenna and I saying our goodbyes

2) Joe and Rhonda saying "goodbye"

(I miss y'all so much already!!!)

Others: Me inside the place, the inside of the place, over the Pennsylavia coastline (what you see when you look out of the window of an airplane),

Happy New Year! 2011!

Today is mommy and McKenna's first "Blah, Blah, Blog Monday" of the new year. Time to share all those Christmas photos! We really did not take many pictures this year. We did use our Flip...but I have yet to learn how to edit and post (need to work on that...resolution???). The family had an incredible holiday! It started with Lobsterpalooza, workshop at McKenna's school, followed by Diva Christmas at the Farm, mad dash to finish everything prior to Christmas, visit from Aunt Min and Uncle Ged, family Christmas Eve at the Warrens, AWESOME Christmas morning (Santa was VERY good to us this year), SNOW!, Great Wolf Lodge, Spa at Great Wolf Lodge, lots more SNOW, visit to Grandfodder and Gran Ann's in SC (so much fun! Visited goats, horses, donkey, dogs), resting and sleeping and reading, New Year's Eve, fireworks, working on Chicken Condo. McKenna went back to school today, and Joe and I start back to work tomorrow. I looked at my calendar and I think I will be in town about 6 days this month. A little sad, because I will miss Little so much. We are planning a family trip to NYC for her 6th birthday as I have been invisioning since she was still living in my belly.

Okay...I was trying very hard to use McKenna's PC to post tonight but no such luck. Will post photos sometime soon.
FROM MCKENNA
Hi everyone, Santa brought me a Barbie digital nail printer. Mom and I used it. It works great. I also got a lot of iCarly stuff and a Red Rover game. Okay, that is all for now. Have to finish watching iCarly!